Tag: mindfulness

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Every Training Is Different

Steve Rowe

Training on the fire escape this morning was very different. There was a strong smell of cannabis being farmed on the breeze (well it is Chatham) mixed with the scent of the flowers. It’s 5 months since Ann died and the grief is still raw with the birds circling the feeding table in the garden and sitting on the nearby branches looking down at where their food used to be. They still remember her. I can’t get down to the garden or to where they were fed so am unable to continue her legacy and I found myself apologising to … Continue reading Every Training Is Different

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From Earth To Heaven

Steve Rowe

Nature’s incredible urge to bring life and to survive is the most powerful energy there is, to alchemise it into ‘heavenly energy’ is the gift to humanity. It’s still in its incipient stages as most people are subject to to the survival urge and can only react with fear, anxiety and addiction, sometimes the addiction is to ‘happiness’ that can only trap despair as its comparison. Understanding the need to survive, listening to our instincts, objectively viewing the anger, anxiety and addiction, understanding what they are, developing patient kindness, empathy and compassion, spreading it out into our life and environment, … Continue reading From Earth To Heaven

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Never Say “It Can’t Get Any Worse”….

Steve Rowe

Never say “it can’t get any worse than this”… After my knee replacements I had continuous infections and had to have 25 surgeries with 3 life threatening sepsis attacks. It thought it couldn’t get worse. It did. My leg had to be amputated. Surely it couldn’t get worse? It did. I got cancer. That had to be the bottom, it couldn’t get worse than that. The bottom fell out. My wife of 43 years died suddenly. Every time I thought it can’t get any worse than this….. it did. Each time it left me empty, hollow, when everything had been … Continue reading Never Say “It Can’t Get Any Worse”….

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The Best Way To Start Tai Chi

Steve Rowe

The best way to start in any martial art and particularly Tai Chi is with posture and breathing exercises. Good posture gets rid of excess tension and allows for deep breathing, balance and mobility. Deep breathing calms the body, emotions and mind. When the mind follows the breath, the energy moves with it. This brings about a state of mindfulness and the ability to manipulate energy. In my Tai Chi this is then the foundation for qigong exercises, forms and push hands, done ‘monk style’ for self healing, and then taken into applications and weapons ‘warrior style’ for further health, … Continue reading The Best Way To Start Tai Chi

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How I Became Vegetarian

Steve Rowe

It was the 70’s.I’d been dragged up on a South London council estate, gone to the worst school in London, left school with no qualifications and drifted from job to job falling into the security world. From boxing, kickboxing to karate and spit and sawdust gyms doing bodybuilding to bulk up for the violence incurred at work. I thought respect, friendship and love, were all based on other people’s fear of me…. Until Tai Chi led me into the Taoist, Zen and Buddhist practice of mindfulness. I found dependent origination and the practice of patient kindness – that led me … Continue reading How I Became Vegetarian

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Pay Attention

Steve Rowe

To all you overthinkers…. I asked a student how long he meditated each day and he said “20 minutes”. I then asked him what he did while meditating and he replied ”I think about my breathing.” He wasn’t meditating, he was spending 20 minutes a day thinking…. He couldn’t differentiate between thinking and paying attention. Paying attention is mindfulness. And not for 20 minutes a day, but all day in everything we do. We think with the self, we pay attention with our consciousness. From paying attention and being mindful thinking slows down and insight and wisdom arise. “Mindfulness is … Continue reading Pay Attention

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Own Your Mind

Steve Rowe

It’s important to take time and spaceTo be still and silentNo TVNo radioNo musicAnd no peopleStop filling your mind with crapEveryone else wants a piece of itIt’s too easy to give it awayMindlesslyBe stillBe silentTurn your senses inwardAnd find yourselfDiscover your powerOwn your own mindAnd don’t let anything or anyone inWithout filtering itDevelop your own locus of power. Continue reading Own Your Mind

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Chinese Whispers

Steve Rowe

Chinese Whispers In WW1 there’s a story that in the trenches commands were ‘passed down the line’ and by the time “send reinforcements we’re going to advance” had gone down a long line of men it had become “send two and sixpence were going to a dance!” We never know how much knowledge passed down orally has become corrupted. I come across it regularly because I’m old and have studied the classics for over 50 years and often know the uncorrupted versions. But even then, were the original and revered ‘masters’ that good? The stories and legends of both Tai … Continue reading Chinese Whispers

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There Is No First Attack In Karate

Steve Rowe

‘There is no first attack in karate’ is repeatedly brought up on on social media and I think is often misunderstood. The ‘kara’ in karate means empty, like in karaoke (empty orchestra). Its use here is as in the zen ‘empty of intention.’ A skilled karateka is a powerful peacekeeper, with that essential ‘soft front and strong back’. They don’t start violence, like any law enforcement officer, but handle it when it arises. In discussion so many people naively still think that karate (traditionally a stand up grappling art) is ‘block and punch’ in self defence, it’s far from that. … Continue reading There Is No First Attack In Karate

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How Can we ‘Unfold?’

Steve Rowe

How can we unfold? Everyone is different, we are as individual as snowflakes. Locked up inside of us is our own individual destiny and our skill is to allow it to ‘unfold’. To do this we have to learn the language of our instincts and listen to them. Only they can direct us accurately, but first we have to ‘unblock’ them. Society programmes us, family, friends, educators and politicians all tell us what we should be and what we should be doing to serve their desires. As this programming starts at a very early age, to fit in, we assume … Continue reading How Can we ‘Unfold?’